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Tag: Indicted

A Border Patrol agent accused of lying twice about his ties to two Mexican drug traffickers has been indicted by a San Diego federal grand jury.

The indictment alleges Agent Ramon Delgado lied about his relationships with drug traffickers during an interview and in his pre-employment background questionnaire, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Delgado, 44, faces up to five years in prison on a count of making false statements to the federal government.

The investigation began following suspicions that Delgado assisted a drug trafficking organization that smuggled heron, meth and cocaine into the U.S. According to prosecutors, Delgado maintained a close relationship with the two drug traffickers while working for Border Patrol.

A Border Patrol agent has been indicted on charges of drug delivery and possession.

Details of the allegations against Agent Daniel Polanco have not yet been released.

“Agent Polanco has been indicted for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and is also charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance,” Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz said, reports RGV Proud . Daniel Polanco has been employed with CBP for 9 years. After he turned himself in today, he was placed on leave without pay.”

Ortiz emphasized that the allegations do nor reflect the values and principles of the Border Patrol.

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials launched a multi-prong attack against the Pakistan Taliban, placing the group on the international terrorism black list while indicting its leader in the death of seven CIA employees last year on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

The State Department also announced that it was offering a $5 million reward each for information leading to the capture of two top leaders.

One of those leaders, Hakimullah Mehsud, the self-proclaimed emir of the Pakistani Taliban, was charged in a criminal complaint announced Wednesday in Washington in connection with the Dec. 30, 2009 suicide bombing that killed the seven CIA employees.

After glad-handing citizens and hustling on the campaign trail, Rod Blagojevich, the man with the trademark Beatles-style do, convinced 1.7 million Illinois voters to re-elect him governor in 2006.

Nearly four years later, the now-impeached governor hopes to win over just 12 very important votes: the jurors who will decide his fate in his highly publicized public corruption trial that begins Thursday in Chicago. This time, however, he won’t be able to chat them up or shake their hands — as badly as he may want to.

“I’m sure he’ll find it very frustrating,” Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political studies and public affairs at the University of Illinois-Springfield, told AOL News on the eve of the trial.

What Blagojevich is expected to do is take the stand on his own behalf. How that plays out is anyone’s guess.

“He has the supreme confidence in his ability to win people over and be persuasive,” said Redfield, adding, “It’s often not very well placed.”

Five ex-executives from Blackwater, the highly controsersial security firm, were charged Friday with illegally acquiring automatic weapons and filing false documents. Some weapons were gifts to the Kingdom of Jordan in hopes of landing a lucrative contract to build and run a training center, authorities said.

The 15-count federal indictment out of Raleigh, N.C. charged Gary Jackson, 52, former President; William Wheeler Mathews, Jr., 44, an attorney and former Executive Vice President and Vice President of Operations; Andrew Howell, 44, General Counsel; Ana Bundy, 45, former Vice President of Logistics and Procurement; and Ronald Slezak, 65, a former armorer. The company now operates under the name XE Services.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said employees acquired the high power weapons in hopes of getting a competitive with contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Specifically, authorities alleged that the company allegedly purchased 227 short barrel rifles without registering them, a violation of the law.

Additionally, the company wanted to acquire a stock of automatic weapons for use at its Moyock, N.C., facility.

But authorities said federal law limits the number of certain firearms.

“To evade the legal limit of no more than two weapons of any type, they allegedly arranged straw purchases with a small local sheriff’s office,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

“Blank letterhead stationery from the sheriff’s office was provided to Blackwater, which was used to prepare letters claiming the sheriff’s office wanted to purchase 17 Romanian AK47s and 17 fully automatic M4s,”the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “The weapons were paid for by Blackwater, were immediately delivered to Blackwater upon their arrival, and were locked in Blackwater’s armory to which the sheriff’s office had no direct access.”